what you should do, to dogs definitely,(it helps with other animals too) is to lower a hand toward them, present the back of your hand and allow them to sniff it, only then should you attempt to stroke the dog (if it snarled at the offered hand dont stroke it), and when you do stroke it, dont go straight for the top of the head.

Crouching down to its height could expose you to worse injury as you are now putting your face and throat much closer to the animal.

These are the instructions I give my children, who love animals and are used to dogs and want to pet every dog they see.

Making yourself smaller is generally less threatening, but making eye contact or getting in their faces can be more threatening. So it depends.

> It seems obvious that the more respect you show an animal in this situation, the better.

It depends. Some animals behave better when it's clear to them that a) they're not the alpha and b) the alpha has everything under control.

> Making yourself smaller is generally less threatening, but making eye contact or getting in their faces can be more threatening.

The core point is: move slowly. Hectic movements will induce stress in any animal. Give it time to react to your presence and try to look at the body language (especially if it tries to back away from you or growls/hisses at you)... how often people fail to respect a hiss, it's unbelievable.